On This Day: President Barack Obama participates in a literacy lesson with students while visiting a pre-kindergarten classroom at Moravia Elementary School in Baltimore, Md., May 17, 2013 (Photo by Pete Souza)

Here we go again with another hindsight realization…. Will the media ever learn?

HEADLINE: Vladimir Putin Has Been Outplayed by Barack Obama

// Max Fisher notes this morning that although President Obama got a lot of flak for his restrained response to Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, his approach of giving Vladimir Putin enough rope to hang himself has turned out to be a lot cannier than his critics expected:

his has been so effective, and has apparently taken Putin by such surprise, that after weeks of looking like he could roll into eastern Ukraine unchallenged, he’s backing down all on his own. Official Russian rhetoric, after weeks of not-so-subtle threats of invading eastern Ukraine, is backing down. Putin suddenly looks like he will support Ukraine’s upcoming presidential election, rather than oppose it, although it will likely install a pro-European president. European and American negotiators say the tone in meetings has eased from slinging accusations to working toward a peaceful resolution. //

Yes, yes and yes. The other day I was talking to a co-worker, apolitical person. She said she had never seen any president talked about as PBO. He changed everything about the presidency. I love and admire this man.

When Col. Harry Riley announced his plan for an Operation American Spring, he sought to evoke the same kind of populist uprising that toppled regimes in the Middle East, protests that were collectively given the moniker Arab Spring.

And while the photos that poured in from Tahrir Square were incredible, depicting tens of thousands of people in the streets, the pictures from American Spring were…less so:

The “second American revolution” got off to a slow start in Washington, DC on Friday, falling roughly 9,999,950 people short of their goal of 10 million angry, constitution-weilding participants. (That was the low-end estimate. They were prepared for upwards of 30 million).

The few who did make it to Washington, D.C came with a laundry list of grievances, ranging from Benghazi, to Obamacare, to President Obama’s birth certificate, to general lawlessness.
…

As for the paltry turnout, several attendees could barely contain their dismay at the low-key affair. “I took a day off from work to come down,” said Art Skillman. “Where they are, I don’t know.”

Just read the Yahoo article about : political advertising against Obamacare. These gop bastards have spent at least 445 Millions to deny people access to healthcare through Obamacare!!!!!! The ratio of against-ACA vs for-ACA is 15:1 !!!!! Think about that as you put enrollment Obamacare

Doesn’t this beat all:) When private companies start moaning about climate change…..Republicans will eventually listen! Or worse, stay in denial and use this to make more $$$…which is more likely the case for the greedy bastards.

Illinois Farmers Insurance Co. is suing Chicago for failing to prevent flooding related to climate change in what experts say could be a landmark case that accelerates local efforts to grapple with the impacts of climbing temperatures.

The insurance company filed nine class-action lawsuits last month alleging that dozens of Chicago-area municipalities are responsible for the damage caused by a two-day downpour last year in April. The company claims that local officials are aware that climate change is causing heavier rainfalls but failed to prevent sewage backups in more than 600 homes by draining water from the region’s system of tunnels and retention basins before the storm.

Farmers is asking to be reimbursed for the claims it paid to homeowners who sometimes saw geysers of sewage ruin basement walls, floors and furniture. The company says it also paid policyholders for lost income, the cost of evacuations and other damages related to declining property values. But some analysts say that Farmers likely has a bigger prize in mind.

The company, which is a subsidiary of global giant Zurich Insurance Group, could be positioning itself to avoid future losses nationwide from claims linked to floods, sea-level rise and even lawsuits against its corporate policyholders that emit greenhouse gases, said Andrew Logan, an insurance expert with Ceres.

So eff’ing stupid – it’s the Koch fatheads who should be sued. It’s eff’ing BigOil, and the demand should be for alternative energy sources, not more eff’ing money!! These people are too stupid to be real. And it’s too early for me to be angry…

Morning (Afternoon/Evening/Night) folks! Happy (though somewhat cool) Saturday! Hope you are all enjoying your weekend, and that those near major fires are starting to see some relief.

I’m surfacing after being freed from what seemed like millions of little wires, a handful of chest bands and a finger clip. Yesterday was extremely busy so i couldn’t get online, and it ended with me being wired up all over in a sleep disorder lab. Yuk! Anyhow, the results are supposed to provide some answers to why I cannot sleep for longer than 1-2½ hours (3-4 only if I’m totally exhausted) at a stretch, and only at night. No naps for me! Sure hope they have an answer that will alleviate the problem versus just telling me what I already know – you don’t sleep through the night. Frankly, I’m not overly optimistic, because none of the questions on the entry questionnaire applied to me {Do you snore, have nightmares, awake gasping, smoke, drink alcohol, yada, yada?}. Of course, I’m more tired than usual because not being able to sleep, then being trussed up with a ton of wires in a strange environment was somewhat counterproductive. Whatever, I’m free to wander backwards to see who in the village was misbehaving (without my calming influence) yesterday. 😀

I had the same problem VC. I changed my diet (too much sugar) and started exercising daily and now I sleep like a baby. Mine started as I was going through the “change of life”. I hope they can detect your problem because it is a miserable feeling to not get enough rest.

Good to hear progress can be achieved, DD, though, honestly I haven’t slept through the night in years! I can’t see that being solved anytime soon, but because it’s becoming more wearying I decided to try the assessment. The no sugar is no problem for me as I already use stevia instead. The DAILY exercise part will be harder though. I seem unable to hold an exercise theme for longer than two weeks before fading out. We’ll see.

VC, have just finished up with all those tests. My problem stems from having ablation surgery in 2013 and now my heart has a narrowing of the pulmonary vein and one side of the heart is stiffening. So it is not pumping the way it should. They want me on inhalers, but I can only use ones that are not going to increase the heart rate and they are not covered under insurance. If they haven’t checked the veins, that can be a problem. I am on oxygen at night and that does help sometimes. I still wake up tired, sometimes, so it is an ongoing problem for me. Getting my house in order. Hope and pray your no sleeping problem is not anything like mine. Try going gluten free and sugar free for at least one month and see if you feel the difference and sleep better. Praying for you. (((hugs)))

I’m in sync with this approach, The Alkaline Way is a diet guideline for reducing acid in the system, and I regret to say the stevia (tho the docs say it’s fine) still falls under the heading of refined sweeteners. Sorry VC, I truly hope they find some solution.

Morning, MP!
Stevia is actually my only sweetener, unless I’m baking which is really rare. I’ll let you know what they say – if they say anything worthwhile. I’m supposed to have a full physical early in June; the point when my doctor will go through all the results of the tests she’s recently sent me for. The truth is, overall I’m fine. Most of the time I do tests I get back ‘within the normal range’ so I’ll wait and see. I do exercise briefly when I start feeling guilty, or old, 😉 😉 but it never lasts for very long. 😀